Lacrosse, Sports

Women’s lacrosse looks to rebound against Lafayette 

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Redshirt junior attack Mallory Collins leads the Terriers with 23 goals. PHOTO BY ALEXANDRA WIMLEY/DFP FILE PHOTO

After a tough loss against Yale University on Wednesday, the Boston University women’s lacrosse team will look to get back on track against Lafayette College when it returns home to Nickerson Field on Saturday.

Although they did not come out of Wednesday’s game with their intended result, the Terriers (4-5, 2-1 Patriot League) weren’t without their fair share of highlight-reel players. Redshirt junior attack Mallory Collins scored two goals, both coming on free-position attempts to increase her team-leading total to 23.

BU coach Liz Robertshaw was positive about Collins’ efforts on the field, but stressed the need for improvement, both on and off the ball.

“I think we need to see better production from Mallory right now,” she said. “She’s gotten anywhere from one to three points. While I find that to be good in terms of getting us going, I think she needs to be a little more of a voice and presence in terms of her off-ball play. She needs to take on the role of a leader to help get this attack moving with her and being more aggressive.”

Aside from Collins’ production, the entire Terrier team will look to improve its ability to clear the ball. Although BU’s 78.6 clear percentage was higher than their season average of 76.7 percent, Robertshaw emphasized getting back to fundamentals and consistency as two goals for the team moving forward.

“We did a pretty good job clearing the ball,” she said. “We get to the point in a game when things get tight or frantic, I think we start to make poor decisions and that comes back to having sound fundamentals to the end of the regular seasons. We’re going to be working on that in practice this week. We need to get back to some fundamental looks on clears and have more of an aggressive, attacking attitude with the ball. Sometimes that’s lacking, and sometimes that’s great. We need to be more consistent.”

The Terriers will be facing an opponent in the Leopards (2-9, 1-3 Patriot League), who are coming off a close game 13-11 loss to Villanova University t.

Although the Leopards have lost two of their past three games and are averaging 7.75 goals per game this season, they feature midfielders Kirsten Wilhelmsen and Amanda Case. The duo each scored three goals in their last contest, and Wilhelmsen leads the team with 29 points.

Robertshaw said the pair will be a difficult challenge to face, and the Terriers will have to put forth their best defensive effort.

“She’s [Wilhelmsen] highly aggressive with every statistic from draw controls to ground balls, to defensively, she’s getting turnovers,” she said. “This kid is going to cage, and she’s going hard. She’s a strong player from them. She was key in the their win against Holy Cross last week. Amanda Case is another one of their top dodgers. We need to make sure to slow down some of these players.”

After turning the ball over 18 times and being outshot 26-23 in their last contest against Yale University, Robertshaw said the team needs to play to their true capabilities.

“We need to play a better game,” she said. “We are not playing at our potential right now. We need to do a better job of being aggressive on attack and being a better team in general.”

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